Category: Canada

I wouldn’t count myself in with the likes of Hilary White or Steve Skojec or any of the other bloggers who’ve been fighting the good fight for far longer than I’ve been woke, but this is a hilarious list of approved Catholic media sources from our (Canada’s) very own Father Thomas Rosica, or as I will refer to him, Father Tom.

I mean, wow. So from now on Catholics, this is what you’re allowed to read. I guess I’ll have to do some editing of my link roll on the side of this blog.

Maxime Bernier, according to a recent Nanos poll is up to 17%. That’s 17% of Canadians who would be open to supporting his new party in the next election. An Abacus Data poll shortly after he announced he was leaving the Conservative Party of Canada had him at 13%. All Mr. Bernier has really done so far is hold a news conference and then tweet to his followers about the issues he cares about. I don’t know what he has for fundraising but the internet makes it pretty easy to get started, and he’s already got the structure for something like that in place from his leadership campaign. I think people underestimate or write him off at their peril.

Contrast that with Andrew Scheer who’s been leader for a year and all he has going for him is decent poll numbers that (that Bernier is already showing are about a mile wide and an inch deep) might hold the Liberal Party to a minority Parliament, and a slick fundraising operation that’s raised a substantial amount of money. His supposedly positive conservative vision for the country is largely unknown to people while he decides where he stands on issues based on the polls he reads.

For a little bit of fun (if you’re a Bernier supporter or were during the leadership contest), the NDP got 19% of the vote in the last federal election. That got them roughly 40 seats.

For those who are unacquainted with our Single Member Plurality voting system – due to different factors like differing support levels in different provinces or regions and because of how the population is dispersed (mostly in large cities, less in rural areas) – your seat totals can vary pretty widely depending on how concentrated or dispersed your support is. So assuming Bernier’s support isn’t highly dispersed across the entire country, which would lower the potential number of seats he could win, he could take nearly half of the Conservative Party seat totals they currently have in Parliament.

The difference between this split and the split that occurred following the Mulroney majorities is the internet. Its far easier to develop a following amongst a large group of people and get them providing money and support than it was in the late 1980s or early 1990s when the Reform Party was launched.

Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party better pivot fast and start defining themselves on some of these issues where Mr. Bernier is staking out ground, or else they’re quickly going to be out-flanked. The next election is only a year away, and Andrew Scheer is still pretty unknown.

All this said Max Bernier still has a lot of work to do recruiting candidates and building a base of supporters that can help turn out your vote in a national election where you have candidates in 338 constituencies.

Personally, I’m rooting for Maxime Bernier. I pray for his conversion to the Catholic Church, and due to his more libertine positions with regard to the sexual revolution I can’t vote for him. I dearly wish that I could. Our Lady, pray for Maxime. Pray for me. Pray for Canada.

I was reading a tweet that Charles Adler retweeted with a response from a woman who’s fed up with Andrew Scheer’s poll-possessed, weak-knee’d, stand-for-nothing leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

The tweet got me thinking. Andrew Scheer is an avatar for a political party who’s primary concern, beyond all else, is attaining power. Despite what the policy manual might say, (and mostly its a manual of useless “National Strategies” last I looked) they’ve jettisoned all their principles except one, that being taxes, and even on that issue its a smoke-screen because most of their tax cuts aren’t cuts at all. Its tax credits. Its the state promising to pay you if you do what they want. The Scheer-Cons won’t even challenge the status quo on something as communistic as the government controlling the price of dairy products in order to guarantee the profits of dairy farmers while Canadians are forced to a pay a premium which the poor can’t afford. The current government is in the process of completely fumbling the NAFTA re-negotiations because they’re too concerned with “social justice” than actually trying to negotiate a fair deal for Canada.

That’s leaving aside the fact that none of parties, let alone the Scheer-Cons, are going to address abortion, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, no-fault divorce, etc. In fact, Andrew Scheer was able to persuade a significant chunk of so-called “social conservatives” to vote for him in spite of his Harper pledge not to legislate on abortion. Mr. Scheer even said he doesn’t believe in imposing his ideology on anyone. It should be noted here that Andrew Scheer is a Roman Catholic. Another Catholic politician in Canada failing to live out his faith publicly. Maybe his Archbishop or his parish Priest would like to share a word next time Andrew Scheer is spotted at Mass on Sunday.

Given the performance of the current liberal government, any competent opposition party should have them on the ropes. Instead the current conservative movement is once again fracturing into two and on the verge of handing an incompetent twit a re-election victory that he doesn’t deserve. In a purely material sense, Maxime Bernier choosing to leave the Conservative Party to start his own, and hopefully take his 49% of the leadership vote with him will spur Andrew Scheer to actually take a stand and show some backbone. Unfortunately I can’t hold my breath on that one.

So, I don’t plan to vote in the next Federal election. I’m a monarchist and I don’t think we’d be any worse off if this were a Monarchy and I truly had no-vote, rather than the “choices” that will be on the ballot next October.

First, Vincent Frankini of Tumblar House made a suggestion that if one were to read 10 pages per day for an entire year, you would read about 3650 pages in a year which would work out to 10-20 books per year. So, I was reading Libido Dominandi the last couple of mornings. I bought Libido Dominandi quite a while ago, and like a few E. Michael Jones books its a daunting task to read it because its so huge (over 600 pages long). The book argues that sexual liberation as we’ve seen in Western culture over the last 60 years is actually something that the Regime uses as a form of political control, and that inappropriately indulging your passions (sexual acts outside of marriage and without the possibility of procreation) makes you a slave. As someone who has had his struggles with sexual vices, I would say based upon what I’ve read so far – about 360 pages of a 600 page book – that he is spot on. Sexual immorality is the fastest way to, first, corrupt people, and then basically use people to enforce this new orthodoxy on everybody else. If you don’t believe me, try to oppose homosexuality and win the leadership of a national political party.

Second is a thought that’s been running through my head for a while. Evangelization not ecumenism. It strikes me that things must have become really, really bad in the Catholic Church and in the world in general if the then-gloriously reigning Pope John Paul II felt the need to call for a “New Evangelization”. Aren’t we supposed to be doing that anyway? Doesn’t Christ’s great Commission command us to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost? Yet, much of the Church hierarchy it seems, and particularly my own Ordinary would prefer to focus on ecumenism. I don’t think you can have ecumenism without evangelization. The Catholic Church is the true Church. The true religion. Ecumenism that isn’t based upon persuading our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Protestant friends of that fact isn’t real ecumenism. Its just indifferentism. It amounts to making all religions seem equal. Sorry, fellas, that’s a sin.

Third, this country that we call Canada was founded by the French and the English. The French being Catholic and the English Protestant. Samuel Champlain landed in what was “New France” or Quebec in the early 17th century. I forget the exact year. Canada was for much of its history a nation that was nearly majority Catholic. The Catholic Church was the boss in Quebec, and Quebec was and is home to a significant share of Canada’s population. Since the Quiet Revolution when French Canadians decided they would rather worship the government than God, it seems that something else has implicitly taken its place – secularism. We’ve become a nation that views religion and theology as something that’s not real. Its just a private devotion that doesn’t belong in public life. That needs to change. Hence the call to evangelize. I have to do better. All honestly believing Catholics need to do better in this country. Or else we’ll deserve the persecution that is sure to come later.

Fourth, I mentioned Tumblar House earlier. If you have a chance check out the website. Its a great little Catholic bookstore with some good titles that are well worth reading. I’ve got the site on my blog roll on the right hand side of the page.

Maybe it doesn’t occur to people because our culture is so saturated in its own sin, but we’re killing off our own society (and importing a different one through immigration) through abortion and euthanasia. Yet, our politicians from every political party are more concerned about spending your money (through taxes) on refunds for transit passes or infrastructure, like pork projects that mostly don’t deserve public funding anyway, which will only result in more debt for my generation and the following generations to pay off.

Instead of making the moral arguments against these evils and then letting the cards fall where they may, people would rather avoid the topics because they’re divisive. So, in the interest if gaining political power in a society that’s largely funnelling the storm drain, we’re going to pretend that these fundamental issues aren’t issues at all, and we’re going to worry about taxes and debt. Yes!! More bread and circuses!! More fun!

Campaign Life Coalition has a page on their website with the available facts and figures on abortion. Its enough to make your heart break and your blood boil. Here’s a few of the statistics.

Since it’s legalization in 1969, 4 million Canadians have died from elective abortions.

Today, abortion is used as a “back-up” birth control method in more than 96% of instances.(6)

About half of the women with an unplanned pregnancy choose abortion. The other half keeps the child. Fewer than 1% offer the baby for adoption.

Only a few hundred children are placed in adoption each year.(7) Couples who wish to adopt can wait up to 10 years before bringing their child home.

Its really hard to get excited about the 150th Anniversary of this nation after you see these numbers and then consider the real state of our country. I read this and I started regretting getting involved in politics at all, even though it was just to vote in the leadership campaign.

This is a bit of a rant, but I had to write something after the thought came to me earlier around lunch time that while 4 million Canadians have been murdered through abortion since 1969, our chief concern is money. I guess that’s not totally surprising, but its sure depressing to think about.

Maybe we should reread the Old Testament of the Bible, and reacquaint ourselves with how God dealt with a people who refused to turn away from their sin. This isn’t Old Testament times, God isn’t going to intervene and establish another new covenant. The new Covenant in his blood is everlasting.

We’ve got a choice to make, folks. Whatever choice that is God will respect it. He gave you free will. You have to choose. He won’t violate your free will, or the choices we make in this life are meaningless.

By the way, when you sin mortally you place yourself under the power of Satan. So go to confession resolve to turn from your sins. We have to become saints if we want to win this battle for our nation and culture.

I sat this afternoon glued to the CPAC feed on my laptop of the Conservative Party of Canada leadership convention. Andrew Scheer is the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Mr. Scheer came second on every ballot from the first right through the twelfth, and then on the final 13th ballot he won the contest by 51-49% margin over Maxime Bernier.

There were a few surprises along the way. Erin O’Toole turned out to be the king-maker, placing third, and it was his supporters who flowed to Andrew Scheer on the final ballot. Brad Trost came in fourth and Pierre Lemieux placed sixth or seventh!! I certainly didn’t expect that strong a showing, but it was so important for religious/social conservatives to have their candidates do well, and show the rest of the party that we can’t just be ignored when the next government is formed by the CPC.

I remember sitting writing Andrew an e-mail about his campaign promises. I was asking him how he’s going to balance the budget in two years. I hope that he has a good plan that he’s ready to release shortly, or else the Liberal Party of Canada is going to have much fun filling in the details for him.

In a sense it didn’t matter too much who won because both of the front runners were moral equals when it comes to the fundamental issues of life and marriage. Andrew Scheer would object and point out that he’s pro-life, but since he won’t act on the issue it really doesn’t matter that he believes as he does because the outcome will the same as if a pro-choice candidate had been victorious like Maxime Bernier. Further to that point this nation won’t be saved by politics or any particular politician. There’s only one who can save, Jesus Christ.

Anyway, lets focus on the positive. Brad Trost – a conservative who holds that life is sacred from conception to natural death – came fourth. FOURTH!! To the establishment of the Party that is satisfied with merely maintaining the status quo, and holding power: That won’t do. We won’t be satisfied.

Today is probably my favourite secular holiday. On the third Monday in May Canadians celebrate the reign of Queen Victoria, the granddaughter of King George III.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father’s three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Putting aside the fact that England renounced the True Faith when King Henry VIII insisted on receiving a divorce from his wife, and when his faithful barrister Thomas More refused he persecuted him terribly, I quite like the Monarchy. It would be all the better if the next Monarch reverted to the True Faith, and left the Church of England [Anglican Church or Episcopal Church] to die on the vine.

The Catholic Church has long taught that Monarchy is the best form of government, followed by Aristocracy, and then Democracy. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that a blend of all three is likely best. I think here in Canada, along with Great Britain and the other Commonwealth states have the closest to that commingling. We have the Monarch who’s able to assert herself (through dissolving Parliament or allowing a new government to be formed from an existing elected Parliament) if need be in a time of crisis. We have the Aristocracy in the Senate, the upper Chamber which is meant to be a House of “Sober Second Thought”, and we have the democracy in our elections where we choose for ourselves the men or women who represent us in Parliament, which is supposed to be a safeguard of our liberty, not a threat to it as it tends to be today.

Its unfortunate that the two dominant national political parties (Liberal and Tory) are both effectively Republican at this point, and only pay lip service to the Monarchy as a relic of the past that isn’t relevent to the present or the future. I would warn that given the climate we live in today, the Monarchy might become more relevant and necessary in our politics than we realize.

But amidst the apparent chaos and unruliness that seems so pervasive in our culture, lets remember who the real King is. He doesn’t seem well known anymore, and his adherents have not done well proclaiming him and making converts of their neighbours. His name is Jesus Christ, he is the Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. He who created the world ultimately governs it. His governing style is benevolent, his justice is merciful, and he truly serves those who toil in the garden in his name.

God Save the Queen, and make her a convert to the Catholic Church. Our Lady of Walsingham, Ora Pro Nobis.